Pages

Thursday, 29 January 2015

Connection, it Shows

How many times have we heard it - a connection is a must to be able to create a work where the viewer can see that the artist has had a joy and emotional connection whilst painting. How evident this is for me these past few days. I have mentioned before that I don't paint Cats because I have no connection or joy with them due to an incredible fear of them. I also told myself that I would try and overcome this by painting them. Well after a couple of tries I quickly discarded each as Ok but hide in the drawer results. Thing is they are no harder to paint than a dog, cow or chicken but when your heart is not in it it becomes a chore and a bore. This week Isabella Kramer (one of the Washing Girl Artists) shared a photo of her cat on facebook and it had all the makings of a good painting with its lights, darks and nice composition. I asked her if I could use it to paint and she said "yes lets both do it". Well I easily made a couple of pencil marks to get the eyes and nose in the right spot and then started to add paint. Within 5 minutes I wanted to scribble all over it or tear it up. It lays unfinished staring at me just like a real cat would, saying I'm sure - I win, I win all the time!
Different story now with painting a dog. This is Bella, a Maltese/Shnauzer(I think) cross who has a funny little underhang bite. She has brought such delight to my friends who recently adopted her as she is only 7 but her owner had to go into full time care and could no longer keep her. They have only ever had large breeds of dogs all their lives but have quickly found out how a little dog can easily make the rules, just like my poodle Rosie does in our house.

Dear Lorraine your Bella is well done portrait of a lovely little dog full of character !!! I see that you have particular connection with the painting of animals, so it seems strange not to be able to do cat!Maybe the photo was nice, but not your point of view, to be able to paint.To me also as the subjects are positioned in the image,creates different connection ,so my results can be very different. You are right, sacred words, it is true that all painters paint better what makes vibrate their heart.